1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital map systems and more particularly to integrating a digital map system in a distributed network environment.
2. Related Art
Digital map systems are among personal computing's most popular offerings, yet integrating such a system with a website on the World Wide Web requires a conscious effort of the website's author and sometimes even the payment of license fees for use of a digital map system. As a result, many websites leave the end-user with the cumbersome task of manually launching a preferred digital map system and manually cutting-and-pasting an address into the appropriate input fields of the digital map system. Even when a website author has performed the integration work, the resulting maps will be presented by the digital map system chosen by the website author, which may or may not coincide with the end-user's preference.
FIGS. 1-3 provide an example of the limitations of the art. FIG. 1 illustrates a webpage 100 displayed on a web browser 105. The webpage 100 displays a location description 110 for the ACME Corporate Headquarters. If the user desires a map and/or driving directions to the location 110, the user must launch a mapping service through typing in the map service domain name, searching for a mapping service, or by selecting a mapping service that is stored as a favorite.
A mapping service webpage 210 launched by the user is illustrated in FIG. 2. The browser 105 shows that the user has typed in or cut-and-pasted the details of the location description 110 into the mapping service web page 210. The user then selects a request map button 215 to request a map of the location description. Finally, as shown in FIG. 3, a map 310 of the location description 110 is provided in a map webpage 300.
It is desirable to address these limitations.